The 24th Pole
by Nightwingess
Summary: Aya is a human girl with a newly adoptive father, she is organized, meticulous and acts according to her scheduled plans. How does Aya react when an stranger disrupts them? Find out...


Like every other morning on Oa, Aya had woken up at exactly 6 in the morning with her clothes laid out on her dresser and her books already packed in her bag. The girl was a creature of habit, always waking up the second before her alarm clock rang and always on time to every class, really every scheduled event, with the intention of being the first person there.

She rose like a machine from her bed and stepped onto the cold floor, her body not feeling a chill or summing a single goose bump. She looked over her room, it was a reflection of her need for organization from the socks that were matched in pairs to her pristine collection of rocks, cleaned daily and analyzed weekly.

Below she could smell the bacon her father cooked but her stomach did not growl for she was not hungry, she never really was. Just like every other day, she dressed in a matter of seconds, combed each side of her hair 27 times each, and brushed her teeth for exactly four minutes.

Everything was a number to her, every beat, every count needed to be exact.

As she stepped down the 12 stairs, she waved goodbye to her father who gestured for her to eat.

"No thank you Hal," she had not yet gotten used to calling him father, "I'm headed off to school."

"It's early, Aya! And wouldn't it be better if I gave you a ride? Your school is 2 miles away!" He looked at her with concern and once again gestured for her to eat.

"I prefer to walk." She said as she shut the door. As she stepped down past the second step she paused, wondering if her actions towards her adoptive father had been rude.

"Maybe I should-"

The crisp air against her face distracted her from further thought on the matter, and soon she was on her way.

Aya had always taken the long way to class; she preferred it solely because it offered her the opportunity to enjoy the quietness of the world. There was no traffic, no cars buzzing by, no cellphones ringing, no people scurrying off with coffee mugs and PDAs. It was a sweet silence that allowed her to think, thinking being her favorite thing to do.

As with every day, she turned left, then right, then down a pair of park steps, then left, and straight down the road. Each step she took, she counted, each pole she passed she touched. She couldn't help herself, she had a need to count and calculate, a habit that would be insufferable to most but to her it was the inevitability of the life she lived. The perks of her eccentricity were her genius intellect, the downside were her compulsions… and to some degree having to sit alone at lunch, although truth be told she didn't mind the alone time.

"23." She mouthed to herself and she turned the corner, the 24th pole would be just 13 steps away.

"11, 12, 13." Aya reached out her hand to touch the next pole but abruptly stopped at the sight of a body leaning against her 24th pole. She stared at it, it was a human, a male to be exact with odd black clothing and an even odder hairdo.

"Excuse me, please move." Aya said frankly. For all her strangeness she was not one to beat around the bush. She needed to touch her 24th pole in order to make it to the 25th pole and so on. It was her routine.

The boy, Razer, lowered his head to get a better look at the sight before him, and yes he found her to be quite the sight. A small girl with white hair and matching white clothing with a determined expression and a tone of authority that no person had ever dared to use with him. In fact, his entire life he had always been the one to be feared for he was the kid with dagger eyes and a harsh, but false, bravado in his words.

All his actions were out of a distain for those around him. But for some reason, today he found himself fascinated by this girl who seemed to care less about his appearance or even his angry aura. She just wanted to touch the pole.

"I'd rather not move." He said, matching her voice in an attempt to steer her away. He did not believe his interest was enough to make him treat her different than any other person he had met and so he chose to keep with his usual front.

Aya looked the boy up and down, unnerved by his resolve. She turned to face him directly and mimicked his expression.

"Why?" She asked frankly.

Razer's mouth nearly fell open, nearly. He bit his lip expecting his usual rage to provide him the proper profanity, which would serve as his explanation for the girl as to why he could not move from the pole just because of her need to touch it.

Instead, he found himself forming an entirely different sentence.

"I prefer to lean against the pole." He said quietly, watching her body language carefully…

"I prefer to touch the pole." Aya said.

For some reason, Razer felt the need to laugh.

He resisted.

"Is that so?" Razer said with a deepened breath that made Aya blush.

It was at this point that Aya realized she could have touched the side of the pole instead of the front and thus could have avoided this unscheduled conversation altogether. Yet she found herself speaking to this boy whose words and gestures made her feel odd… odd in a way she could not place.

She couldn't quite explain what she was feeling inside but she was certain of one thing, her cheeks were warmer.

Razer watched her face changed, it was a peculiar sight really what with her cheeks puffing up and her eyes wandering about as if searching for answers.

He found it… adorable.

"I…" Aya paused again when she saw the boy was smiling at her, a smile so kind she found her blush deepening. She turned on her toes and tilted back, a bit, confused by the way her mouth pushed upwards like a smile.

"My name is Aya," she said with her face still turned, "and I would like to touch the 24th pole."

"My name is Razer, and I might just let you, Aya."

"You will." She said, her mind suddenly at ease with the entire situation.

"I will?" Razer said, surprised again by her tone of voice. She sounded so sure of her words, it was… refreshing.

"Yes."

"And why is that?"

"Because," Aya looked up at Razer, and this time she did not resist the urge to smile, "I asked nicely."

And just like that, Aya found herself smiling at a stranger, an event entirely unplanned… but she didn't mind one bit.

(and neither did he.)


End file.
